Peter R.S. Bankes

Peter Robert Sandham Bankes (1911-30 November 1943) was a Captain of the British Army who led a company of Chin tribesmen in Burma during World War II. He was killed in action, and he remained a local hero in the frontier areas of the country due to his bravery.

Biography
Peter Robert Sandham Bankes was the son of a Protestant clergyman from Norfolk, England, and he was on the rowing team of the University of Oxford before running a camp for the unemployed in London's East End. Later, he joined the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, and he worked in Burma. In 1940, Bankes and his 19-year-old wife Pearl moved to Rangoon in British Burma, and Bankes joined the Army of Burma Reserve of Officers. He was attached to the Chin Levies, a group of tribesmen equipped with muzzle-loading rifles from the Boer War, knives, swords, and spears, and his group of ragtag tribesmen waged guerrilla war against the Empire of Japan. The Chin Levies prevented the Imperial Japanese Army from crossing into British India during World War II, using captured Japanese weapons to fight against the Japanese invaders. His fighters held hundreds of miles of the front line, but he did not live to see the end of the war. He reprimanded a Chin sentry for sleeping on the job twice, and the angered soldier decided to collect the bounty put on him by Japan and killed him. Bankes was awarded the Military Cross for his distinguished service, and he was buried 30 miles north of the village of Lampthang at the "Mount of Gentleman Bankes", which the Chin tribesmen made to honor their hero. His body was later taken to Tiddim, and his wife was buried alongside him in June 2015 after she died as well.